About a year and a half ago, Ofsted inspectors visited school. We were very happy with the school’s overall judgement of ‘outstanding’ but we were disappointed that our Reception class was singled out as an area to improve. Parents tell us (and told the inspectors) that they are happy with their child’s progress in the first year at Moortown Primary, but inspectors were less enthusiastic.
Since the inspection, we have been working on a year-long project with a private, Early Years specialist, Early Excellence.
Part of the project involves visits from an Early Years specialist. We’re delighted with the feedback so far; here are a couple of extracts from her second report:
The indoor space has undergone significant development since my last visit. There are now well organized wet sand and dough areas and a miniature water area – this makes provision for materials exploration much wider-ranging. I observed the children using these three key areas of provision very well and in the case of the wet sand, two boys spent extended time on a project of their choosing, really concentrating and negotiating each step of their investigations. There was a high level of involvement, language use and reasoning.
I was impressed with the amount of writing that children freely engage in and the ways they confidently use writing as part of their play. Within the areas, they are offered opportunities for writing for real purposes as well as a range of literate materials which stimulate this.
As well as this project, we’ve invested a lot in new furniture and resources and on staff professional development. We’ll continue to invest to ensure the best provision and the best outcomes. We already have plans in place for another long-term project in 2013-14.